Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I might put two sets of connected questions. I will get a quick answer to the first and then revert.

Regarding the DMAPs, it was striking to hear that the important environmental and economic project of protecting our marine areas has not progressed during the Government’s term. It looks like all of the building and planning is going to happen even though marine protected areas have still not been designated and the promised legislation has not been drafted. That is regrettable.

The Minister has spoken a great deal about planning. I am concerned that there sometimes seems to be a narrative that planning is the reason we do not have housing and so on. I do not accept the argument that planning is the obstacle to delivering on these issues. In the planning legislation that is currently before the Houses, a decision has been taken to remove reference to the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act. The factors that the commission, planning authorities and the new An Bord Pleanála are being asked to consider in the course of their duties used to include the Act and the duties and obligations under it, yet those have been removed from the Bill. In the course of their duties, there is no longer reference to them having an obligation under the climate Act, creating a concern that our planning may end up moving against good climate decisions.

Regarding LNG, the Minister suggested that we were considering the energy review and the idea of something that might be temporary and public. The planning Bill, which will be back before the Seanad next week, explicitly proposes in Schedule 2 that “a terminal, building or installation ancillary to a terminal that is used for the liquefaction of natural gas or the importation, offloading and re-gasification of liquefied natural gas [that is, LNG],” would not only be allowed, but considered strategic infrastructure and allowed to bypass proper planning scrutiny. One of the legacies of this Government in its last weeks or months will potentially be a blueprint for LNG. Since such facilities will not be limited to public storage or temporary, how will we challenge the private actors? From what we saw in the Shell case, there is a significant unwillingness to challenge big energy actors once they have a footprint in Ireland. I am concerned that our planning proposals will move us backwards on climate significantly. The energy security review was clear that LNG was not the solution, yet it is being made a priority under the legislation. How do we reconcile that?